In a move that could surprise many people who work in mainstream media outlets and across the U.S. political spectrum, Ana Marie Cox, who is famously known as Wonkette the liberal blogger and now works as a columnist for The Guardian, has publicly declared that she is a follower of Jesus Christ.
Cox wrote an essay in the Daily Beast on Saturday about how she converted to Christianity. She wrote it within the context of describing how she lived in both personal and professional settings.
"Here is why I believe I am a Christian: I believe I have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior," Cox wrote. "I believe in the grace offered by the Resurrection. I believe that whatever spiritual rewards I may reap come directly from trying to live the example set by Christ."
Cox added that her success "in living up to that example is primarily between Him and me." She noted that professional colleagues, who have seen remarkable changes in her life, have asked her how she was able to become "happier, freer, and healthier in body and spirit."
"I have a litany of concrete lifestyle changes I can give them-simply leaving Washington is near the top of the list-but the honest answer would be this: I try, every day, to give my will and my life over to God," Cox wrote. "I try to be like Christ. I get down on my knees and pray."
However, the liberal blogger thought that conservatives would interpret her "closeted Christianity as evidence of a liberal media aversion to God." Cox felt that she was doing something "subversive" by coming out publicly as a Christian.
"After all, my day job is all about expressing my opinions and beliefs-some of them unpopular," Cox wrote. "In my private life, and very cautiously on social media, the people close to me can see evidence of my affiliation. Tweeting out prayers and quotes from Scripture still feels subversive."
The columnist expressed fear that fellow Christians, as opposed to "non-believers," would make her feel like an outcast. She cited the example of some Republicans and conservatives questioning the authenticity of President Barack Obama's Christian faith.
"Not going to church low? For [Erick] Erickson and others, that's passive evidence against Obama, even though Reagan didn't go to church, either," Cox wrote. "What about Bible literacy? Mine is mostly limited to dimly remembered excerpts from the Old Testament we read in my college humanities class and a daily verse email."
Cox admitted that when it comes to reading the Word of God, it was "still a second language I speak less than fluently," adding that she had "so much studying to do I may never catch up." She elaborated on what it meant to practice true Christianity.
"My understanding of Christianity is that it doesn't require me to prove my faith to anyone on this plane of existence," Cox wrote. "It is about a direct relationship with the divine and freely offered salvation. That's one of the reasons that when my generic 'there must be something out there' gut feeling blossomed into a desire for a personal connection to that 'something,' it was Christianity that I choose to explore. They'll let anyone in."
Cox noted that there was a difference in being a Christian and merely believing in the existence of God.
"To be clear, I don't just believe in God. I am a Christian," Cox humbly wrote. "Decades of mass culture New Ageism has fluffed up 'belief in God' into a spiritual buffet, a holy catch-all for those who want to cover all the numbers: Pascal's wager as a roulette wheel and not a coin toss."
The columnist added that she was "going all in with Jesus" no matter what the cost was to her.
"The only cost is the judgment that comes from others, from telling people that my belief has a specific shape, with its own human legacy of both shame and triumph," Cox wrote.
Cox then described how she lived her life before turning to Jesus.
"I spent a lifetime trying to earn extra credit from some imaginary teacher, grade-grubbing under the delusion that my continuing mistakes - missed assignments, cheating, other nameless sins - were constantly held against me," Cox wrote. "And I knew in my heart that failure was inevitable."
According to her understanding of God's Word, there was only one kind of judgment that mattered.
"I am saved not because of who I am or what I have done (or didn't do), but simply because I have accepted the infinite grace that was always offered to me," Cox concluded.
